Patrick Mahomes about to obliterate Len Dawson’s touchdown record

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has been playing at a historic pace, and he’s about to erase a famous name in Chiefs history.

As he prepares to play his 10th game this season, Mahomes is one touchdown short of breaking Len Dawson’s franchise record for touchdown passes in a season (30).

It seems that at some point over the next seven weeks, or perhaps a quarter, Mahomes will get that one.

“Len has had a ton of success in the NFL and was kind of ahead of his time, throwing all those touchdowns” Mahomes said, via Blair Kerkhoff of the Kansas City Star. “The record has stood for a very long time. It would be awesome to pass that, but hopefully we can just keep building and get more wins.”

Mahomes has already tied another Dawson record with six touchdowns in a single game, and more marks are likely to fall.

With 3,185 yards in 10 games (including one game last season), he’s 25,322 yards shy of Dawson’s all-time passing yards record. At his current pace, he’d need 79 more games to get there. Dawson needed 183 games to amass his 28,507 passing yards, en route to the Hall of Fame.

“I don’t think there’s any time for that,” Mahomes said of the records. “For me, it’s about the wins. That’s all I want to do.”

He’s doing pretty well on that front as well, with eight and counting this season. Dawson never had more than 11 in any of his 14 seasons there.

When Len Dawson played the DBs could hang on the receiver from the snap until the play was blown dead. These new recordbreakers all need an asterisk. 5,000 yards? 50+ touchdowns? Try doing it circa 1984…

It’s 2 completely different eras so comparing Dawson & Mahomes is apples to oranges. When Dawson played, the NFL season was 14 games. Also NFL defenses actually had teeth and so throwing for 30 TDs in a season was exceptional – just like 70+ receptions for a WR was exceptional whereas now those stats are simply “average”. This was before the 1978 rules changes which debilitated defenses in order to inflate QB and WR stats. Not meant as a knock on Mahomes but basically a commentary about the skewing of stats owing strictly to rules changes.

BTW, as a Raiders fan I’ve always hated the Chiefs but Lenny Dawson and Willie Lanier were 2 of their players that I always respected on the field back in the day.

Not bad, but pales in comparison to Brady’s 6 in just 2/3rds of a game (5 in one quarter – a league record) in snowy conditions against the Titans, going 29-34 for 380yds before resting up late in the 3rd quarter and letting Hoyer play the rest of the game. Oh, and Brady’s best single-season TD tallly is 52 (50 passing, 2 rushing). Get back to us in 2 decades and 5 rings about your already incessant claims that the Mahomes is the goat and will own most/all the records.

Hey Patriots fan running his mouth about brady haveing 6tds and 380yds in 2/3rds of a game, um Pat had 6tds and and 350yds at halftime in a game. Hell he had 4 in the 1st qter. How about you get back to us when brady the false goat does that.

To compare across eras, you have to look at how each guy did in comparison to his peers. Between 1962 and 1967, Dawson had between 21 and 30 touchdowns each year, led the league in touchdown passes four times, was second once, and third once. The years he led the league, the second-place guy was always within two touchdowns of him. The ratio of Dawson touchdowns to the #5 guy on the list each year ranged from 1.2 to 1.9. He was definitely one of the leading quarterbacks of his era in terms of touchdown passes.

Mahomes has 29 TD passes so far and the second-place guy only has 23. The ratio of Mahomes touchdowns to the #5 guy is 1.5.

I think we can conclude that Mahomes is dominating so far this year in a way that is very comparable to how Dawson dominated in that six-year period. Let’s see if he can put together a great career like Dawson had.

From 1962 to 1967 (peak years), Dawson averaged 23.4 passes a game. He threw a TD pass on 7.85% of his passes. His highest TD% was in 1966, when he threw 26 TD passes in 284 attempts (9.15%). Mahomes is throwing a TD pass on 9.15% of his attempts this year.

Mahomes plays in a league where defense has basically been phased out. I’m not discrediting what he’s done, he’s been great. But comparing him and Len Dawson is silly. Mahomes throws it 30 times a game at least.

I mean….Eli Manning’s numbers are better than Johnny Unitas’. Certainly doesn’t make him a better QB.

Rob Brzezinski is a Magician says:
November 9, 2018 at 11:15 am
To compare across eras, you have to look at how each guy did in comparison to his peers. Between 1962 and 1967, Dawson had between 21 and 30 touchdowns each year, led the league in touchdown passes four times, was second once, and third once. The years he led the league, the second-place guy was always within two touchdowns of him. The ratio of Dawson touchdowns to the #5 guy on the list each year ranged from 1.2 to 1.9. He was definitely one of the leading quarterbacks of his era in terms of touchdown passes.
Mahomes has 29 TD passes so far and the second-place guy only has 23. The ratio of Mahomes touchdowns to the #5 guy is 1.5.
I think we can conclude that Mahomes is dominating so far this year in a way that is very comparable to how Dawson dominated in that six-year period. Let’s see if he can put together a great career like Dawson had.
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Arbitrarily choosing the TD ratio between the #1 guy and the #5 guy is hardly going to allow you to draw any conclusions, let alone that you are judging one over a several year period and another over 8 games.

Len Dawson is a Kansas City icon, but the fact that he’s held the record for this long speaks to the wasteland that has been the QB position in KC for so long. Comparing across eras is irrelevant. What’s important is that the Chiefs have a true franchise QB for the first time since 65 toss power trap. Pretty sure Lenny is just as happy about this as any other Chiefs fan.